Paris’s Hotel Ritz will close its doors for renovation

Luxury Hotel Ritz will be closing its doors shortly. That’s not the whole story though. The closing is temporary. Paris’s famed five-star hotel Ritz will be undergoing extensive renovations that is expected to go on for at least two years. In addition to the hotel their in-house restaurant L’Espadon will also remain closed. The renovation which is expected to start in the summer of 2012 had lost France’s coveted “palace” designation. The Hotel which is owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed has 160 traditional rooms and suites. A spokesman for the hotel confirmed that out of the 500 employees, 30 of them would still be employed with the hotel. Although the hotel boasted of past patrons such as Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, it gained notoriety in 1997 when Princess Diana and her then boyfriend Dodi Fayed last dined there before their fatal car crash.